Xylocopa virginica

This is a large semi-social bee, about an inch long, that nests in holes the adults bore into wood. Eastern carpenter bees look like and are similar in size to queen bumblebees but have a glossy, not hairy, black abdomen without yellow bands. As is fitting for a wood-cutter, the mandibles are large and strong. Males are identified by a conspicuous white spot on their face (lacking in females) and the eyes nearly meet on the top of their head. Territorial males often hover in place and dart after passing objects and thus frighten people, but, like all bees, the males cannot sting. Females can sting but virtually never do so unless handled. A related species, the southern carpenter bee (X. micans), overlaps with and can be confused with the eastern carpenter bee in and south of southern Virginia. It is easily separated by the metallic greenish blue (not black) abdomen and black (not pale yellowish) pubescence on the thorax. The native leaf cutting bee Megachile xylocopoides appears to mimic the eastern carpenter bee. It is smaller, the abdomen is more slender, and the eyes are much smaller. The similar and related introduced giant resin bee, M. scripturalis may be nearly as large as an eastern carpenter bee, but the abdomen is much more slender and cylindrical. Both have black abdomens and dark wings like carpenter bees, and while they do nest in holes in wood they are solitary. Eastern carpenter bees begin activity earlier in the spring.

The eastern carpenter bee occurs from coastal southern Maine west through southern New England, New York, and extreme southern Ontario to eastern Iowa south to eastern Texas and nearly all of Florida.

In much of the east, eastern carpenter bees occur almost anywhere. They are most conspicuous when they form nesting colonies in the exteriors of houses, barns, other out buildings and fence posts, but they are also common in forests where they nest high in dead trees or large dead limbs on living trees. They may prefer to nest in pines and other conifers, but they are not restricted to them. They tend to nest in dry wood in sunny places. Carpenter bees often bore into the back face of the trim under eaves, as this surface is usually not painted. Paints and varnishes tend to repel them. The adults visit a great variety of flowers in gardens as well as natural habitats.

Eastern carpenter bees are unusually long-lived insects, with some females living for two years. North of Florida, adults overwinter and emerge in the spring. Males defend territories near group nest sites (holes bored in wood) and mate with as many females as possible before they die in about two months, or less in hot waether. Mated females rear 6-9 offspring in these holes. While two or three females may share a nest and share food, apparently one lays all of the eggs and does all the work in the nest. New adults emerge by June in Georgia (later northward), and remain mostly in their nest holes, except for short feedin trips, until the following spring. Adults feed on nectar and are commonly seen at many kinds of flowers from spring to fall. Larval cells are provisioned with a mixture of pollen and nectar. In Florida there are two generations of adults reared each year, but north of there generally only one. Eastern carpenter bees are important pollinators for some plants (e.g., Passiflora incarnata), and, like bumblebees, they are effective "buzz pollinators" of tomato, egg plant and other crops.